New Zealand: North Island

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February 2nd 2006

Published: March 9th 2006

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Guy and Rachel

Auckland Sky Tower

the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. Apparantely

Here's that text you've been badgering us for!:

After changing our flights, we landed in Auckland a few days sooner than originally planned. We were immediately pleased with what we now term as 'civilization overload'. This can be both a blessing and a curse, dependent on our mood, situation or suuroundings. We are pleased to say though that this overload was definately of the positive nature! We were delighted by the complimentary coffee that greeted us whilst waiting at the baggage carousel. We were delighted that there was conveniently priced transportation outside to take us to our hostel, and we were very pleasantly suprised by the City of Sails itself, spending a few days here immersing ourselves in civilization after being a bit starved of it since leaving Brazil. We also discovered (well, we had anticipated it) that things are an awful lot easier when people speak the same language! It was great fun trying (or pretending!) with other languages but to walk into a bar and just ask for a pint was nothing short of euphoric (although the price of a pint was sharper than having one's bottom slapped with a cricket bat!)

After a few nights we

Top o'the Tower

Rachel gets high in Auckland

picked up our hire car (which we lovingly called The Old Dog, on account of the fact that is was old, knackered and slow but also loyal, faithful and obedient!), threw our newly acquired tent and camping gear in the old boot and drove north to the Bay of Islands. We spent

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